Saturday, 23 March 2013

Salon of Venus

Along with the Salon of Diana, the Salon of Venus is the main entrance to the Grand Apartments - this means that the courtiers used these rooms to get to the King and Queen's Grand Apartments. Earlier the Ambassador's Staircase ended here but it was destroyed to make more room. When the so-called "evening soirees" (social gatherings for specially invited courtiers) were held, this salon was filled with small tables with either huge bouquets of flowers or rare, exotic fruit. Sometimes, there would also be served marzipan and crystallized fruit.
On these occasions the salon was lit by two very large chandeliers and eight smaller chandeliers of crystal. The chairs were lined with green velvet and laced with gold.

The ceiling is decorated with a painting of the planet Venus along with symbols associated with the Goddess of Love (same name in Greek mythology). The mouldings are decorated with the actions of heroes of the Antiquity - some of them related to Venus, others to Louis XIV himself. Of the Grand Apartments this is the one that features the highest level of the Baroque style